Method of making maize-sugar.



UNITED sr rss ra Nois PATENT OFFICE.

LAIRD STEWART, OF MURRAYSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR or ONE-HALF To SAMUEL E. GILL, or PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA. I METHOD OF MAKING IVlAlZE-SUGAR invented a new and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of Sugar, of which the following 1s a full, clear, and exact description. I have discovered that when maize, the Indian-corn plant, is in the growing condition it can be caused by sterilization or the severmg of the car from the stalk at a certain stage of its growth, as hereinafter indicated, to enter upon and pass through a new and peculiar condition of development, whereby, as

. one of the direct results of the treatment,=the

plant is enabled to store and accumulate within the cells of the stalk an extraordinary proportion of sugar (amounting to twelve to fifteen per cent. of the juice) and to produce at the same time such changes, in its cellular structure as to enableit to be utilized practically for the manufacture of sugar and cellulose-and other useful and valuable products derived from them. The treatment of the,

living plant necessary to produce these results may be described as follows: The development of the grain must be arrested at a certain critical point,. which should not be .overpassed', the particular external indicagroper period has been reached or by break;

igionsl of which, taken together, are the yet ri t hus o the ear, the but partially developed grains at the tip of the ear filled with the watery juice, and the brown dead silk protruding from the tip of the car. If the husk be strip ed from the car when this stage of its deve opmenthas been reached, the grain, exce t at the topof the ear, be'found to be fillied with a milky juice; The best results are to be reached onlywhen the development has reached this critical stage and are not reached at all if the separation-of the ear is postponed until the. grain hasflhardened. In practice the end is attained by simply striping ofi the ear from the stalk when t e mg or cutting through the fibrous internal 'vessels of the foot-stalk of the car, so as to prevent their supplying itwith the nourishment stored in the sta k. The ear maybe allowed to remain hanging to the side 0 the stalk, attached to it only by the external membranes of the foot-stalk. This treatment of the plant is constant and uniform in Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed October 17, 1994." Serial No. 228,781.

een color of the outside layers of the and more or less destructive chan Patented Jan. 30, 1906.

producing the results as above stated. I have ascertained this by several years of experiment with most of the varieties of maize now grown in the United States and under very diverse conditions of soil and climate. Under the new conditions of treatment and development the life of the plant is greatly prolonged, and the juice of the stalk acquires entirely new characteristics never obtained when in the normal condition. ery put to practical use gives a new source of supply for sugar and cellulose in unlimited quantity, of superior quality, and at a com- This discovparatively low cost. Moreover, these results are reached without the sacrifice of the grain, for a fullcrop of the immature grain'is secured for stock-feeding or other uses.

After the ears have been stripped from the stalk at the period above stated the stalk is allowed to grow for a considerable time until it reaches its full deve opment.

time varyingsomewhat maize under treatment; The stalk is then in prime condition for use and will contain about fourteenper cent. of sugar. It should eriod of This will require from'two to four weeks, the v with the variety of then be out, the julce extracted and clarified and converted into sugar or syrup. The residue of the stalk can be used as cellulose for the manufacture of paper and other uses.

While I- have indicated particularly the stage of the growth of the plant at which the ears are to be removed the treatment my be t in varied. Thus I may obtain the same res ameasure by sterilizing the plant in other wayshr example, by removing the ear as soon as it is formed or by loppmg off the panicle.

' Itake the juice extracted from the stalk, which is then in a somewhat-diluted cond1- tion, about twenty-five per cent. of water having been added to it during the process of extractionor directly afterward. This meas* ure of dilution is desirable to facilitate the recipitation of certain impurities at a su sequent stage of the operation. As soon as the juice has been-extracted from the stalk, or, preferably, during the process of extraction, as a preparatory step to prevent immediate e to the sugar in the juice thus exposed to t e action of the air I add formic aldehyde, (or formaldehyde which I incorporate with the fresh juice, using it for that purpose in the proporms I tion of about one pound of a forty-per-cent. solution of formaldehyde, such as is known commercially as formaldehyde Merck, to one thousand gallons of the juice. The juice is then run off into a heating-tank, and when its temperature has reached about 180 Fahrenheit, or such temperature under varying conditions as will produce coagulation of the albuminous substances which are coagulable at that stage, I add to it acompound prepared by adding to a saturated solution of acetate of alumina about one-half its weight of calcined magnesia, (magnesium oxld.) Carbonate of magnesia may be substituted in part for the oXid. This compound is added slowly to the juice until it shows an alkaline reaction to test-paper. The juice is then heated to or near the boiling temperature, the heat turned off, and the precipitate which is formed allowed to subside. The liquid is then racked off into another tank, and enough of a solution of acid sulfite of magnesia, or acid sulfite of alumina, is mixed with it until it shows an acid reaction on test-paper. The juice is then ready for evaporation, first in open evaporating-pans, using a filterpress afterward for the separation of any sediment that may form, and, as it then is in a highly-clarified condition, it is finally reduced in a vacuum apparatus to the condition of crystallized sugar or a purified syrup.

I make no claim to any apparatus to be used for evaporating purposes, but may use the best forms of such apparatus now employedin cane and beet sugar manufacture.

claiml. The method herein described which consists in sterilizin maize before the close of the milky perio of the kernel, continuing the growing of the plant to permit an increase of sugar content in the stalk, then extracting the juice, clarifyingit and reducing it to sugar or syrup; substantially as described.

2. The methodherein described which consists in separating the ears from growing fieldmaize while the ears are in the milk, continuing the growing of the plant to permit an increase 0 sugar content in the stalk, then extracting thejuice, clarifyin and reducing it to sugar or syrup; substantially as described.

3. The method herein described which consists in sterilizing maize when the ear is in the milk, continuing the growing of the plant for more than two weeks until an increase of sugar content takes place in the stalk, then extracting the juice, clarifying it and reducing it to sugar or syrup; substantially as described.

4. The method herein described which consists in separating the ears from growin maize while the ears are still immature an are at the stage of growth, at which the ear is in the milk and the protruding silk is dead, continuing the growing of the plant untll an increase of sugar content takes place in the stalk, then extracting-the juice, and clarifying it and reducing it to sugar or syrup; substantially as descr1bed. P r

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand October 8, 1904. i FRANCIS LAIRD STEWART.

Witnesses:

GEO. B. BLEMING, T. W. BAKEWELL. 

